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Passing Bigger and Better Leads to IBM Business Partners

Last year, IBM passed all leads less than $50K to IBM Business Partners. Based on the incredible success of this initiative, we're now expanding this opportunity by raising the dollar amount to include all leads less than $100K. This change will be effective immediately, and it reflects our commitment to the channel.

In order to make good on this commitment, we will inform your Value-Added Distributors (VADs) about the leads that are passed to you, so that they
can provide assistance when needed. Your IBM channel team or VAD will engage with you to help you prepare for
the increased lead volume, so if you don't hear from them, please reach out to your
local contacts. To further assist in closing these opportunities, we've also made more technical sales resources available, so engage them where needed too.

As part of this commitment, we intend to pass more leads to IBM Business Partners who demonstrate success
in
closing the leads that we've already passed them, so seizing the
opportunity is key. We won't know that you've succeeded unless you
report it, though, so make sure you update the status of your passed leads in the Global
Partner Portal (GPP).

In return, we're asking for some commitments from you. We expect all IBM Business Partners who receive passed leads to:

Accept or reject passed leads within two days in GPP. Leads grow stale quickly, so our expectation is that the recipients will be able to work on them right away.

Update the lead status in GPP every two weeks -- this demonstrates that you're working the leads that you've accepted.

Ask for help help when you need it. As mentioned above, our VADs will be alerted
to the opportunities we share with you, and can assist you with progressing and
closing opportunities where appropriate.

Let us know about any lead
quality issues. This will help to ensure that you are being passed only quality leads.

To learn more about these changes, listen to the Lead
Pass podcast from Mark Register, Vice President IBM Software Business Partners & Midmarket, who provides some short audio highlights on the most important
details. Once you click on the link, simply scroll down to the What's New section; you'll find the podcast there.